Microsoft: Platform Level Voice Commands Such As “Xbox On” Will Continue To Work In Games Despite The New SDK

Microsoft this month released an updated Xbox One SDK for developers which gave developers access to more GPU bandwidth, there by enabling more performance for their games. This new SDK update is making it possible for developers to access additional GPU resources previously reserved for Kinect and system functions. Microsoft today clarified few things regarding this XDK. They confirmed that system level voice commands such as Xbox On will continue to work during games even with this new update.

Xbox Wire: What features are lost if developers use the extra GPU performance? Kareem: Kinect Depth and infrared sensors which enable biometric sign-in skeletal tracking, controller pairing, etc. will no longer work for these game titles. Developers can choose to disable Kinect depth and infrared sensing in different parts of their titles. The full Kinect experience including skeletal tracking is automatically re-enabled when the user switches back to Home (or other applications), even while in the middle of a game.Xbox Wire: What about Snap, Broadcast, Voice commands and other system features? Will they still work if a game uses the extra resources? Kareem: Yes. Platform level voice commands such as “Xbox On,” “Xbox, Record That,” and “Xbox, Go Home” will continue to work as they do today, as will any in-game speech commands or Snap mode. The Kinect (RGB color) camera will still continue to work, so your friends can watch you while you’re playing your favorite games. Snap mode for TV, Achievements and other features will continue to work.

He also reiterated the fact that it is up to developers to utilize the June XDK for games in development to take advantage of these additional GPU resources.